I use BLC in the following manner. I fill a keg with about 2 gallons of the solution (BLC and water, follow the label). I have four tap lines that I clean, so I connect the keg to the lines and run the hot solution through the lines for about 20 seconds. I do this with each line. Then I go thru the lines again for another 20 seconds but collect the runoff into a bucket. I then soak the keg connects from the tap lines in the bucket to clean the connects. Per the instructions, I flush the rest of the lines with ice water. I'll do this every 3-4 months or if I let the lines sit for more than a month without a keg attached.

Once a year I disassemble the faucet shafts and the entire faucet and soak everything in BLC to get all the crud off. There is usually some buildup inside the faucets, but it comes off easily. You only need to soak things for about 5 minutes in hot BLC solution. Rinse everything in ice water.

In between kegs I flush my tap lines with hot water, no solution. That keeps the lines mostly clean, but the quarterly and annual clean ensure that everything is clean. YMMV.

I have a 12-year-old maple syrup porter. It tasted like rocket fuel when I made it, so I decided to age it in a keg. I left it in the corner and gassed it every month to make sure it was still under pressure. Right now it tastes very similar to Sam Adams Triple Bock, the ones in the blue bottles. I serve it in 9 oz. glasses around the holidays and have about 1/4 of the keg left. It's got a serious kick to it.

Normally we age ales 1-2 months, and they last 3-4 weeks after they're tapped. Lagers go about 3-4 months in the fridge, and they too only last about 3-4 weeks in the keg. We have a scotch ale that's been in the carboy for 10 months, and that's long for us.

I use BrewMath religiously to adjust decoction volumes and recalculate refractometer readings while brewing. BJCPStyles is convenient to have. It's searchable and nice to have for every reason you can think of.

BeerAlchemy is nice to have if you are a Mac user and have the Mac version of it. It's easier to use on the Mac than on an iPod/iPhone. I have used it at brewclub meetings to quickly throw together a recipe or just to play around with ingredients and ratios.

Simplenote is a free app that allows you to take notes. The neat thing is that the notes can be shared with another device or edited online. The iPod/iPhone syncs to all of the other devices. It allows the wife and I to both work on the weekly grocery list. The downside is that I often get sent out to do grocery shopping since I have the list on me at all times.

Enigmo is a neat game. Check it out.

They ported Doom over to the iPod/iPhone. The controls are obviously different, but the game is true to the way I remember it. Not a bad way to kill a few minutes during the day.

The Betty Crocker Cookbook app is nice. The iPad version is really nice, but the iPod/iPhone version is pretty good. It's something I can use while food shopping (see above, I am food shopping often).

There's also a really nice port of a HP 12C financial calculator. The interface looks like a 12C and all of the functions are there too. If you know how to use a 12C, this app is invaluable.

Having converted three fridges the only way you'll know for sure is to bring the kegs with you. Also don't forget that you need about 1"-3" of space beyond the top of the kegs to accommodate for the bulge in the serving and gas lines.

You may need to take the plastic moulded door panel off the door and replace it with a piece of plastic. You'll gain several inches of space and it's easier to install faucet shafts this way.

You'll probably have to keep the crispers at the bottom of the fridge. The compressor is usually located at the bottom-back of the fridge and this creates a bulge where the crispers are. It's not enough space to fit three kegs, so plan on cutting a piece of plywood and placing it on top of the crispers for support. Keep this in mind when you are measuring because you could lose 1/4" or more of space due to the plywood platform.

If you don't want to lug kegs around with you, take some cardboard and make a box the size of the keg. Add the space you need for tubing and it should give you a pretty good visual. Measuring could work, but you'll never know for sure until you close the door with something in the fridge.

I'm cheap so I soak the bottles in warm, slightly soapy water using dish detergent. After an hour I take a butter knife or a paint scraper and take the labels off. Then the bottles go back in the solution for 10 minutes or so. I get the remaining labels off with a green kitchen scrubby.

So all you need is the detergent, a bucket, a paint scraper, a green scrubby and some time.

Also, the header of TT usually had an AHA or industry-related post by Charlie P., Gary Glass or some other folks. If there are announcements like that on this forums, I think I lose them in the RSS feed.

Wow, I completely missed those. I think the subcategory needs to be broken out a bit. It has AHA announcements, FAQs and the rules lumped together. I would have put the announcements in another thread since they'll be more dynamic than Rules and FAQs.

One thing that's missing from the forums that we had on TT was David Houseman. I knew that with every post I made I could count on getting a reply from him and subsequently had some very good discussions with him.

In grad school they told us that the most important thing in the classroom was the students. The ability to share different experiences and insights significantly increased the value of the classroom.

I wonder how many other folks we lost in the transition...

Agreed.

Note: The forum has Gordon Strong, Denny Conn and Fred Bonjour just to name a few.

Oh, no knocks against any folks, it was just an example. I've picked up some really good information on mashing over the past couple of weeks. Houseman was just an example of one person who was a regular contributor, and I haven't seen any recent forum posts by him.

Also, the header of TT usually had an AHA or industry-related post by Charlie P., Gary Glass or some other folks. If there are announcements like that on this forums, I think I lose them in the RSS feed. There's no way to prioritize certain sections of the forums so they are listed at the top of the RSS feed other than subscribing to a particular thread. So although it was manually done, there was some value to the organization of the posts. My RSS reader might be archaic in that regard, but it was one thing that we had in TT that we might not be able to implement with RSS.

One thing that's missing from the forums that we had on TT was David Houseman. I knew that with every post I made I could count on getting a reply from him and subsequently had some very good discussions with him.

In grad school they told us that the most important thing in the classroom was the students. The ability to share different experiences and insights significantly increased the value of the classroom.